I rather recently rediscovered Dolph. I had known about him for years and for whatever reason, didn't respect him as much as the Planet Hollywood gang yet would occasionally see him in a few indie films or Die Hard type knock-off (as well as his Stallone films) that weren't half bad and still considered him rather relevant, even more so than some of the other popular/infamous/overrated/okay action stars (Van Damme, Rothrock, Norris, etc.).

Lately, I did some digging for more independent action when I ran out of direct-to-video action star laden films to watch and saw some of his stuff at the used DVD stores and checked them out to great surprise and delight. Nowadays, you can always bet that he'll appear in some professional looking if low-budget/indie film that easily surpasses or at least stands up to the likes of anything Denzel Washington, Liam Neeson or any of the Expendables stars are coming out with nowadays.

I notice that even those who aren't even up to speed with his filmography still remember him from at least one cult movie (Men of War, He-Man, Rocky, various commercials). There's just something about him that comes off as remarkable, maybe it's the self-aware nature of his appeal, the ability to hide his accent unlike some of these other action stars or that he's just too convincing a tough guy. Add any of those factors up along with his ability to choose film projects with stories that get to the point and action that stands out and excites, I say we all have a winner on our hands the next time we see a film with his face on the cover.

"No, I haven't seen any of [the new 'Punisher' movies]," - Dolph in 2009 MTV News Interview

Was a kid when Rocky IV came out so pretty much set the imprint. He was in a lot of stuff that seemed cool to a kid even if I was too young to realize they weren't very good -- he's He-Man! He's The Punisher! I think I saw Masters of the Universe twice in theaters.

Then he took on alien drug dealers, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Keanu Reeves, and teamed up with Brandon Lee. I've avoided most of his DTV movies though.